'Thank you for your advice, Napier. I will not risk the Maxims.'
'Sir, sir, you can take at least one Maxim off its carriage. We can carry it in a blanket and swim across.'
'Thank you, Captain. I will send Borrow across with twenty men to reinforce Wilson until morning, and this force will follow, with both Maxims, only when it is light enough to see the ford and make the crossing in safety.'
'General Sint John, you are signing the death warrant of those men.'
'Captain Napier, you are overwrought. I shall expect an apology from you when you have recovered yourself.'
Clinton sat with his back against the bole of a mopani tree. He had one hand thrust into the front of his sheepskin jacket, to hold his travelling Bible out of the rain.
He wished above any other creature needs that he had light enough to read it.
All around him the rest of the tiny patrol lay stretched out on the muddy earth, bundled up in their rubber groundsheets and oilskins, though Clinton was certain that, like himself, none of them was asleep, nor would any of them sleep that night.
Clutching the Bible above his heart, he had the certain prescience of his own death, and he made the astonishing discovery that it had no terrors for him. once, long ago, before he had discovered how close at hand was God's comfort, he had been afraid, and now the release from fear was a blessed gift.
Sitting in darkness, he thought of love, the love of his God and his woman and his daughters, and that was all that he would regret leaving behind him.
He thought of Robyn as he had first seen her, standing on the deck of the American slaver Huron with her dark hair aflutter on the wind and her green eyes flashing.
He remembered her upon the rumpled sweat-soaked childbed as she struggled to give birth, and he remembered the hot slippery and totally enchanting feeling of his first infant daughter's body as it slithered from Robyn's body into his waiting hands.
He remembered the first petulant birth wail, and how beautiful Robyn had been as she smiled at him, exhausted and racked and proud.
There were other small regrets, one that he would never dandle a grandchild, another that Robyn had never come to love him the same way he loved her. Suddenly Clinton sat up straighter against the mopani, and inclined his head to listen, peering out into the utter blackness from whence the sound had come.
No, it was not really a sound, the only true sound was the rain. It was more like a vibration in the air.
Carefully, he returned the precious book to his inside pocket, then he made a trumpet of his bare hands and pressed them to the wet earth, listening intently with his ear to the funnel.
The vibration coming up from the ground was that of running feet, horny bare feet, thousands of feet, trotting to the rhythm of an impi on the march. It sounded like the very pulse of the earth.
Clinton crawled and groped his way across to where he had last seen Major Wilson lie down under his plaid.
There was no glimmering of light under the midnight clouds, and when his fingers touched coarse woven cloth, Clinton asked softly: 'Is that you, Major?'
'What is it, Padre?'
'They are here, all around us, moving back to get between us and the river.'
They stood-to while the dawn tried vainly to penetrate the low roof of cloud above them. The saddled horses were merely humped shapes just a little darker than the night around them. They were drawn up in a circle, with the men standing on the inside, rifles resting on the saddles as they peered out into the thick bush that surrounded them, straining for the first glimpse as the grey light settled gently, like a sprinkling of pearl dust upon their dark, wet world.
In the centre of the circle of horses, Clinton knelt in the mud. With one hand he held the reins of the grey horse, and with the other he held the Bible to his chest.
His calm voice carried clearly to every man in the dark waiting circle.
'Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name The light grew stronger; they could make out the shape of the nearest bushes. One of the horses, perhaps infected by the tension of the waiting men, whickered and scissored its ears.
'Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven Now they all heard what had alarmed the horse. The faint drumming approached from the direction of the river, growing stronger with the dawn light.
for thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the glory There was the metallic clash of a rifle breech from the silent waiting circle of dismounted men, and half a dozen gruff voices echoed Clinton's quiet 'Anien!'
Then suddenly someone shouted. 'Horses! Those are horses out there!' And a ragged little cheer went up as they recognized the shape of slouch hats bobbing against the sullen grey sky.
'Who is it?' Wilson challenged.
'Borrow, Sir, Captain Borrow!'
'By God, you're welcome.' Wilson laughed as the column of horsemen rode out of the forest into their defensive circle. 'Where is General Sint John; where are the Maxims?'
The two officers shook hands as Borrow dismounted, but he did not return Wilson's smile.
'The general is still on the south bank.'
Wilson stared at him incredulous, the smile sliding off his face.
have twenty men, rifles only, no Maxims,' Borrow went on.
